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Sarah Aaronsohn
Sarah Aaronsohn ( ; 5 January 1890 – 9 October 1917) was a member of Nili, a ring of Jewish spies working for the British in World War I, and a sister of notable agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn.Sarah Aaronsohn (Jewish Virtual Library, based on New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel, ed., Geoffrey Wigoder, Copyright 1994 by Associated University Press, The Jewish Agency for Israel and The World Zionist Organization.) She is often referred to as the "heroine of Nili." Early life Sarah Aaronsohn was born and died in Zichron Yaakov, which at the time was part of Ottoman Syria. Her parents were Zionists from Romania who had come to Ottoman Palestine as some of the first settlers of the First Aliyah and were founders of the moshav where Aaronsohn was born.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/aaronsohn-sarah Encouraged by her brother Aaron, she studied languages and was fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, Turkish and French, had reasonable command of Arabic and taught herself English. She married Haim Abraham, an older and affluent merchant from Bulgaria, and lived briefly with him in Istanbul; but the marriage was an unhappy one and she returned home to Zichron Yaakov in December, 1915. Decision to spy On her way from Istanbul to Haifa, Aaronsohn witnessed part of the Armenian genocide. She testified to seeing hundreds of bodies of Armenian men, women, children, and babies; sick Armenians being loaded onto trains; and up to 5,000 Armenians massacred by being bound to a pyramid of thorns, then set alight. After her trip to Haifa, any allusions to Armenians upset her greatly. According to Chaim Herzog, Aaronsohn decided to assist British forces as a result of what she had witnessed.Armenian Genocide Research - The First World War : A Complete History Spy ring Aaronsohn, her sister Rivka Aaronsohn, and her brothers Aaron Aaronsohn and Alexander Aaronsohn, with their friend (and fiance of Rivka) Avshalom Feinberg formed and led the Nili spy organization. Aaronsohn oversaw operations in Palestine of the spy-ring and passed information to British agents offshore. Sometimes she travelled widely through Ottoman territory collecting information useful to the British, and brought it directly to them in Egypt. In 1917, her brother Alex urged her to remain in British-controlled Egypt, expecting hostilities from Ottoman authorities; but Aaronsohn returned to Zichron Yaakov to continue Nili activities. Nili developed into the largest pro-British espionage network in the Middle East, with a network of about 40 spies. Discovery and death In September 1917, the Ottomans intercepted her carrier pigeon carrying a message to the British and decrypted the Nili code. In October, the Ottomans surrounded Zichron Yaakov and arrested numerous people, including Aaronsohn. Her captors tortured her father in front of her. She endured four days of torture herself, but she released no information beyond what she thought of her torturers.http://www.think-israel.org/pollack.lonepalmtree.html Before she was to be transferred to Damascus for further torture, she asked permission to return to her home in Zichron Yaakov to change her blood-stained clothes. While there, she managed to shoot and kill herself with a pistol concealed under a tile in the bathroom.Auron, Yair. The Banality of Indifference. 2001, page 179-80Kahana, Ephraim. Historical dictionary of Israeli intelligence. 2006, page xix According to Scott Anderson, in his book Lawrence in Arabia, Aaronsohn shot herself in the mouth on Friday, October 5, 1917. "Even this did not end the torment of Sarah Aaronsohn. While the bullet destroyed her mouth and severed her spinal cord, it missed her brain. For four days she lingered in agony." In Spies in Palestine, James Srodes quotes the diary of Dr.Hillel Yaffe as saying that Sarah pleaded with him, “For heaven’s sake, put an end to my life. I beg you, kill me…I can’t suffer any longer….” Instead, Dr. Yaffee administered morphine.Srodes, James (2016). Spies in Palestine. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, p. 175. . She died October 9, 1917. In her last letter, she expressed her hope that her activities in Nili would bring nearer the realization of a national home for the Jews in Eretz Israel. Because of the Jewish views on suicide, Aaronsohn was denied a traditional burial in a Jewish cemetery. However, refusing a Jewish burial for a Jewish war hero was naturally unpopular. As a compromise, a small fence was placed around her grave in the cemetery (symbolically removing her grave from the surrounding hallowed ground). Legacy Following her death, Aaronsohn became widely commemorated. She was the first example of a "secular, active death of a Jewish-Zionist woman for the nation, unprecedented in both religious martyrdom and in the Zionist tradition established in Palestine." Annual pilgrimages to her tomb in Zikhron’s cemetery started in 1935. After the Six Day War of 1967 the memory of Aaronsohn and of Nili became a part of Israel's cult of heroism, officially recognized by the Labor Party and celebrated in children’s literature. See also *Balfour Declaration, 1917 *Zionism *'Ot me-Avshalom' by Nava Macmel-Atir, 2009 (Hebrew). References Further reading *''Heroes of Israel'' by Chaim Herzog (1989, Little, Brown) *''Spies in Palestine: Love, Betrayal and the Heroic Life of Sarah Aaronsohn'' by James Srodes (2016, Counterpoint Press) External links * שרה אהרנסון Sarah Aaronsohn (izkor.gov.il) * Prof. Billie Melman, Sarah Aaronsohn (Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, Jewish Women's Archive) * Biography on MyJewishLearning.com Category:1890 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Ottoman Jews Category:Female wartime spies Category:Suicides by firearm in Israel Category:Jews in Ottoman Palestine Category:Spies who committed suicide Category:World War I spies for the United Kingdom Category:Women in World War I Category:Witnesses of the Armenian Genocide Category:People from Zikhron Ya'akov Category:Women in war in the Middle East